North-south LRT line experiences another delay
Posted Aug 16, 2023 02:47:27 PM.
The completion of Ottawa’s north-south LRT has been delayed again, by about another month, with construction now not expected to be finished until November.
In a memo to Ottawa city council, the City’s head of light rail construction, Michael Morgan, said signal testing is one of the steps yet to be completed which is partly causing the approximately month-long delay.
“Trackwork is largely complete, however, progress on signal testing is advancing slowly and requires additional time which is pushing the overall handover timeline to no sooner than early November,” Morgan wrote.
The north-south line will run from Bayview station to Riverside South, with a spur to the airport. Back in May, Morgan had estimated that the contractor building the line would hand it over to the city in early October.
“There remains some risk and uncertainty in the completion of the remaining works,” Morgan added, pointing out that Transport Canada approvals and training are still required to be completed before TransitNEXT, the consortium building the line, hands it over to the City’s possession.
Once the system is handed over to the city, Morgan said that the City will then make a decision as to when the line will open to the public.
Meantime, extending the Confederation Line continues to progress slowly. The City said the eastern extension of Line 1 to Trim Road is about seven weeks behind schedule, and expected to be finished in early 2025.
The western LRT extension from Tunney’s Pasture to Moodie and Algonquin stations is now up to 17 months delayed, with construction now expected to be complete in late 2026.
